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Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Doggie Door / RV Stuff

Doggie Door

One of the projects on our TO DO list was to cut a doggie door between Barn 1 pasture and Barn 2 pasture. There are two Great American Pyrenees who guard the llamas on the farm. They run from pasture to pasture chasing off any potential predator. They should be able to easily move between all pastures even if pasture gates are closed. If the dogs are in Barn 2, and need to get to the top of Barn 1 or the house pasture, they have to go to the bottom of Barn 2 pasture, find the access gate at the bottom of Barn 2 or house pasture, then come back up the hill. Sofie can make the trip pretty quickly. Bear is a lot slower because of joint issues. Having a doggie door at the top of Barn 1 pasture makes the trip a piece of cake. Since I fix the busted gate post, it only made since to get the doggie door done also. The wire fence to the loft of the gate is the spot for the goggle door.
It did not take Sofie or Bear long to figure out where the new door was.

RV Fixes

The owner has a toy hauler RV. They are taking off for a few weeks to ride their motorcycles. Jerry asked me to look a few things that needed fixing.

Fix #1 Ice Maker

The RV has an ice maker that sprung a leak the last time they had the RV out. It appears the hose fitting was cross threaded on the solenoid valve which is where the leak was. I was able to get it threaded correctly but still had no water flow. Apparently the water shutoff was turned off. To make matters worse, the T-handle on that shutoff valve was busted off.

I could not find a suitable replacement valve at HomeDepot so plan "B" was to add a second shutoff valve in line with the 1/4" poly flow tubing. To get the busted shutoff valve opened, I had to pull the ice maker out of the cabinet. That required removing a stair step that was in the way.

There are two types of in line shutoff valves. One is brass and one is plastic. The brass valve is a sleeve inserts that are inserted into the 1/4" poly flow tubing. This won't work with this water line because for some crazy reason the RV manufacturer decided it was important to use a "special" thick wall 1/4" poly flow tube, not the standard 1/4" poly flow found in 99% of home use today.

That means the plastic shutoff valve is the only other option left. This valve is also unique. The 1/4" poly flow tube is inserted into the end of the valve. Nothing to tighten, nothing to twist. Just insert the tube. The valve is designed such that it provides a seal and grips the tubing. Sure enough, that works. Turned water on to RV - no leaks! That is a good sign. Put ice maker back in its resting spot, replace the stair step. Still no leaks and ice maker is cranking out ice.

Here you can see the tight access door that less to the space behind ice maker. Then you can see the original shutoff valve with the t-handle missing and finally you can see the new shutoff valve.

Fix #2 Light Bulb

There is a reason why light bulbs are called light bulbs. The one on top produces light and is called a light bulb. The one on the bottom does not and is called a dark bulb. How a light bulb morphs into a dark bulb is beyond my simple mind. With a new light bulb in place under the range hood vent, Pam/Jerry will be able to see well enough to cook. They also have a spare just in case the light bulb morphs again.

Fix #3 Satellite Dish

Jerry purchased a Winegard Carryout portable dish so they could stay connected while traveling with their RV. My task was to figure out where to connect the dish on the outside, and where to connect their Direct TV receiver inside. In our RV, these connectors are labeled. On his RV, nothing is labeled. I will be adding labels so they will know where things go. While up in the old TV cabinet, I also tied back loose wires. That's it for today.

6 comments:

A light bulb morphs to a dark bulb due to excessive times of getting turned on. Ever notice how a night light bulb in a fixture that requires one to turn it on (instead of being light sensitive) tends to last a long time? We tend to not turn those off so they just keep on burning. All electrical items have the capability of going out immediately after turning them on.

Terry,Good point about bulb failure when power is applied. I failed to mention that the dark bulb had not failed, it just got dark. Bulb still lights up just not nearly as bright as it should. I've seen this condition on several bulbs where the inside of the glass appears to get stained by some sort of chemical reaction inside the bulb.